A Fight to the Finish

A battle royal is looming in Geneva – a literal fight to the finish that many U.S. agricultural leaders contend may lead to a radical overhaul of American farm policy.

The battle involves an international court case pitting a determined coalition of developing countries – Brazil, China, India, South Africa and a dozen other countries – against the United States, Europe and other wealthy countries. The coalition contends that the $300 billion worth of subsidies these affluent nations pay their farming and agribusiness sectors have undermined regional and global negotiations for the last year. Brazil, which has the first case challenging these subsidies before the World Trade Organization, takes aim at the $1.54 billion in annual U.S. farm subsidies, claiming that they break trade rules.

U.S. cotton growers maintain the case threatens not only the American farming system but their livelihoods. Brazilians, for their part, contend the subsidies not only are providing Americans with unfair trading advantages but are destroying their export markets.

“This is a groundbreaking case – a whole new area – and a tough case for the United States,” said Claude E. Barfield, director of trade studies at American Enterprise Institute and a trade adviser during the Reagan administration.

U.S. cotton industry officials believe much is at stake.

“If this panel finds against the United States, it may force radical revisions in U.S. commodity programs,” said William A. Gillon, legal counsel to the National Cotton Industry.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at January 27, 2004 08:22 AM